Thursday, February 16, 2012

I've got good news and bad news...

The good news: Law abiding citizen apprehends robber who had just roughed up his elderly neighbor!

The bad news: He did it by firing a warning shot into the ground with his chromed Deagle*, that he was Mexican-carrying** AIWB***, which he was happy to demonstrate for the news photogs by whipping it out and busting a pose.

For the jargon-challenged:*Desert Eagle, which he had just **stuffed in his pants without a holster ***up front where it was pointing at things he might need later.

30 comments:

Funny how someone who actually does everything right usually gets crucified by the media, but some moron with more money than brains commits almost every tactical and safety faux-pas in the book gets a positively GUSHING news story.

From reading the account and watching the video, that guy is damn luck he didnt end up a chalk outline himself or put a damn round through someone when using his weapon as a pointing device during the interview...

Well, at least he kept his booger hook off the bang switch. It's a crying shame he managed to simultaneously break every other safety rule in the book while on camera, though.

On the gripping hand, I am a bit amazed (and very pleased) that the assistant police chief actually a) acknowledged on camera that they wouldn't have caught the goblin without the intervention of an armed citizen, and b) didn't spout the usual gos-se about "we never encourage someone to intervene" and "you should just be a good witness." (I am, of course, assuming that any MSM outlet worth its salt would have aired such statements if they had been made.)

-- Let's hope not, as I hope he doesn't breed any gun owners like him. Notice that at 1:26 into that video as he's talking with his pistol like someone would talk with their hands, he's pointing his pistol across the street at a house, and if you look close there's sumdood digging for something in the trunk of their car in the garage. Sven, or whatever his name was, is flagging this individual.

There's a lot more positive than negative about this story. Sure, everyone here would have done it all differently. We would have jumped out of bed and pulled on our pants complete with holster and spare mags, wouldn't have put a round in the dirt and wouldn't pull our piece out in front of a camera to demo how we went after Sumdood and waive it about the neighborhood and regale about how we were gonna tackle him like Ray Lewis. (last guy to see Ray Ray with a gat is 6' minus Z axis right now).

But, there is the fact that nobody who shouldn't have got hurt, Sumdood got arrested and the gun community got a gushing positive story about how an armed citizen with a gun IS A GOOD THING. Complete it seems with the local PD, if not approval, admittance that good guys with guns don't necessarily have a badge.

The thought of appendix carry makes me cringe in the same way a certain class of video does. Appendix carry without benefit of a quality holster (and kevlar skivvies) has the sort of effect generally associated with sudden contact with near freezing water on the region in question.

Monday morning quarterbacking's easy. He and his neighbor went home to their families, and the bad guy goes to the hoosegow.

The Army has a battle drill (I'm not making this up) in it's "Soldier's Manual of Common Tasks" entitled, "React to Media." I think it comes right after "React to Indirect Fire" or "React to Ambush." Not everyone gets trained on how to deal with a Jackal of the Press(tm) in his face, and fewer still remember the training if they do get it.

As for the "Tactical face palm," are those the same Chinese "Special Forces" you see in parades on Segways? I love those guys - a Hostage Rescue Team that can only rescue people from ADA-compliant facilities!

Don't get me wrong - I'm glad the scumbag got arrested. What I am saying is that every gun owner should know better than to punctuate their story using the muzzle of their handgun, just like they should know better than to use the muzzle to scratch their head. Pointing out the obvious dumbass attack is not armchair quarterbacking, it has to be done.